Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE:EPD) Short Interest Up 17.1% in January

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE:EPD) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 26,740,000 shares, a growth of 17.1% from the January 15th total of 22,830,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 4,480,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.0 days. Currently, 1.9% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in EPD. Verity & Verity LLC increased its stake in shares of Enterprise Products Partners by 30.8% in the 4th quarter. Verity & Verity LLC now owns 110,648 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $3,470,000 after buying an additional 26,032 shares during the period. Spinnaker Trust bought a new position in Enterprise Products Partners in the fourth quarter valued at about $280,000. Paragon Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Enterprise Products Partners in the third quarter worth about $2,628,000. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Enterprise Products Partners by 9.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,429,298 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $420,037,000 after purchasing an additional 1,225,988 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp lifted its position in Enterprise Products Partners by 61.7% during the 3rd quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 135,836 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $3,954,000 after purchasing an additional 51,809 shares during the period. 26.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Enterprise Products Partners Price Performance

EPD stock traded up $0.31 during trading on Monday, hitting $33.52. 4,566,851 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,115,015. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. The stock has a market cap of $72.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.09. Enterprise Products Partners has a one year low of $26.64 and a one year high of $34.63. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $32.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $30.79.

Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.05. Enterprise Products Partners had a return on equity of 20.48% and a net margin of 10.49%. The business had revenue of $14.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.07 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.72 EPS. Enterprise Products Partners’s revenue was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Enterprise Products Partners will post 2.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Enterprise Products Partners Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st were paid a $0.535 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 31st. This is a positive change from Enterprise Products Partners’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. This represents a $2.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.39%. Enterprise Products Partners’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 79.55%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on EPD shares. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Enterprise Products Partners from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Citigroup raised their target price on Enterprise Products Partners from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. US Capital Advisors raised shares of Enterprise Products Partners from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Enterprise Products Partners from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $35.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $36.00 target price on shares of Enterprise Products Partners in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $34.70.

About Enterprise Products Partners

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. provides midstream energy services to producers and consumers of natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), crude oil, petrochemicals, and refined products. It operates in four segments: NGL Pipelines & Services, Crude Oil Pipelines & Services, Natural Gas Pipelines & Services, and Petrochemical & Refined Products Services.